Higher Thorne Cottage And Attached Outbuilding

Higher Thorne Cottage and attached outbuilding is a farmhouse, likely originally a longhouse, probably dating from the late medieval period. It underwent remodelling in the 17th century and further alterations in the mid-to-late 19th century. The exterior is colourwashed render over cob, set on a stone plinth, with a gabled thatched roof and a rendered stone end stack to the right. The original layout was of the longhouse type, with a two-unit house to the left of a shippon, separated by a through-passage within the shippon. The house is two storeys high with a two-window front. A mid-to-late 19th century entrance to the left has an open-fronted porch leading to a 19th-century plank door. The windows are mid-to-late 19th century two- to three-light casements with flat rendered arches. Two similar windows are visible in the left-hand bay of the shippon; the lower window likely represents a 19th-century blocking of one of the through-passage doors. A loft opening is above the 19th-century plank door to the shippon, and there is an old (possibly 17th-century) plank door to the through-passage entry at the rear. Inside the shippon, a cobbled floor remains with a laterally-placed muck channel. There are three 17th-century A-frame trusses with halved and crossed apexes. The partition wall on the left, dividing the shippon and flanking the through-passage, has a late medieval raised cruck with a collar and its ridge purlin set diagonally into a yoked apex, an Alcock type Ll construction. The cruck shows heavy smoke blackening on the side facing the house. The through-passage has two ovolo-moulded joists, one with a jewel stop, both likely reset. Inside the house, there is a chamfered bressummer over an open fireplace with a clay oven and a round-arched cream hob. A mid-to-late 19th century straight-flight stair leads to the first floor, which includes a 17th-century plank door and a 17th-century A-frame roof with pegged collars, although the apex is not visible.